Democrats, Republicans used 'wheeling' loophole in 2011

David Levinsky @davidlevinsky

Sunday

Jan 29, 2012 at 12:01 AMJan 29, 2012 at 5:00 AM

The latest Election Law Enforcement Commission filings show that the Burlington County Republicans vastly out-raised and outspent the county Democrats last year, and that both organizations helped campaigns use a legal loophole around contribution limits.

Released last week, the filings showed the Burlington County Republican Committee raised $657,646 in campaign funds in 2011, more than tripling the $199,655 amassed by the Burlington County Democratic Committee.

The Republicans spent $659,069 and concluded the year with $16,595 in available cash, plus a whopping $495,412 in money owed to the organization.

The Democrats spent $194,854 and finished the year with $6,781 in available cash. Their debt load was $108,986, down slightly from the $115,533 the organization owed at the end of 2010.

The Republicans’ financial edge showed in the election results, as the party’s candidates won races for two county freeholder seats and the county surrogate’s office, plus the 8th Legislative District contests.

The party’s only significant defeat was in the competitive 7th District, where incumbent Herb Conaway and his running mate, Troy Singleton, kept the district’s two Assembly seats for the Democratic Party.

In that contest, the Democrats managed to out-raise and outspend Republicans Jim Keenan and Chris Halgas, largely because of Singleton’s fundraising muscle. The labor leader from Palmyra collected $990,315 for his campaign account, about $350,000 more than the combined total raised by the two Republicans.

The commission’s filings show Singleton received some unlikely help from the debt-ridden county organization, which contributed $112,500 to his coffers during the last week before the Nov. 8 election.

How did an organization with more than $100,000 in debt raise and contribute that much to one campaign?

According to the filings, the committee received a total of $101,500 from a union political action committee and two Democratic campaign funds that had already reached their own $8,200 donation limit to Singleton.

The New Jersey Regional Council of Carpenters contributed $24,500 to the county Democratic Committee, the Friends of (former) Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts contributed $40,000, and the Election Fund of Louis Greenwald gave $37,000, according to the commission.

The Democratic committee received those donations between Oct. 31 and Nov. 4. It made its $112,500 donation to Singleton in two installments, on Nov. 3 and Nov. 4, according to the ELEC reports.

The money movement — commonly called “wheeling” — is a common campaign tactic that has been criticized recently by good-government organizations because it can allow donors and businesses to circumvent contribution limits or pay-to-play restrictions that disqualify businesses from receiving government work if they have donated large sums to local candidates or candidate committees.

The laws do not restrict those businesses from donating to county organizations and PACs, which then can donate money to candidates.

Joseph Andl, chairman of the Burlington County Democratic Committee, said Friday that it received no stipulations from any of its donors to transfer or use the funds in support of Singleton.

“There were no stipulations from anyone, and some of the money we received was used for the county races,” Andl said, adding that holding the 7th District seats was a top priority.

“The 7th District race was the most expensive, so it may seem like the spending was disproportionate, but we didn’t have any knowledge about what Singleton raised or if any of his contributors had reached donation limits. He had his own treasurer, and we had ours,” Andl said.

The Burlington County Republicans also frequently move money among their candidate committees, PACs and their own account.

For example, Keenan and Halgas received a $16,000 contribution from the campaign account of late GOP Assembly Leader Alex DeCroce on Sept. 26. About a month later, DeCroce also contributed $31,500 to the Burlington County Republican Committee, which then made a $50,000 loan to Keenan’s and Halgas’ joint campaign.

Wheeling is completely legal, but the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission has asked the Legislature to rewrite the campaign finance laws to limit the amounts that county committees can transfer and to lower the contribution limit to county committees from $37,000 to $25,000.

Gov. Chris Christie has also asked state lawmakers to pass legislation to curtail the practice by imposing contribution limits on county and municipal committees for committee-to-committee contributions and committee contributions to out-of-county or out-of-municipality candidates.

Some bills to limit wheeling have been introduced by lawmakers as part of pay-to-play reform proposals, but they have never been approved by the Legislature.

Andl said a better solution might be eliminating the pay-to-play restrictions altogether.

“Before (pay-to-play restrictions), it was very direct and a lot cleaner,” he said. “Contributions were reported, and that was it. Now you have everyone under the sun creating PAC funds and wheeling. It’s very confusing now and not exercising the intent of the law.”

David Levinsky: 609-871-8154;

email: dlevinsky@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @davidlevinsky

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